Saturday, December 13, 2008

The Monterey Bay Area lived up to its reputation as a wonderful destination by opening its arms wide to us on Thursday. We were overwhelmed by the good wishes of the press and the people there. Del Monte Aviation were brilliant hosts at the airport. The phones have been ringing since then with everyone wanting to know when we'll be back and making suggestions for events that we should attend! We're aiming to schedule Monterey and the area as a regular location for a few days each month and look forward to making friends with all the local businesses and attractions. If you're interested in booking a flight in this area, please call us, or send us a note from our locations page and we'll call you once the schedule firms up.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Stampeding elephants! Raging typhoons! Runaway trains! Unabashedly high-spirited fun! This globe-trotting epic is the original “Amazing Race.” Fearless adventurer Phileas Fogg has agreed to an outrageous wager that puts his life and fortune at risk. With his loyal French manservant, Passepartout, by his side, Fogg sets off to circumnavigate the globe in a mere 80 days. To complicate matters, the bumbling, inept lawman, Detective Fix, has mistaken Fogg for a notorious bank robber and tenaciously dogs Fogg’s footsteps around the globe. The tension builds as danger, romance, and hilarious surprises abound in this whirlwind, family fare adventure across seven continents.

Attend the show, and you have an opportunity to enter a drawing to win an exciting opportunity to travel “Around the Bay in 60 Minutes” on Airship Ventures’ Zeppelin NT Airship "Eureka." Just visit the show, and make a voluntary donation of $10 to the Rep and you will be entered into the drawing for two seats on board this amazing vehicle.

For those not attending, there is also the "Where in the world is Phileas Fogg" contest you can enter.

Friday, December 5, 2008

It's been fun this past weekend with the Metlife Blimp in the air over the bay with us. We're nearly twice the length of the A60+, but it's a really fun airship to fly. Katharine Board, our pilot, was with Snoopy 1 and Snoopy 2 for a long time, so it is cool for her to see it in the air while she's flying the Zeppelin. Snoopy 2 is around through the middle of December so we're sure there'll be plenty more rendezvous opportunities!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

German Consul General Rolf Schütte said at our naming ceremony on November 21:

Many people drive German cars that create „Fahrvergnügen“ or that call themselves „the ultimate driving machines“. Consul General Schütte said he was sure that the product made by „Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik GmbH & Co. KG“ in Friedrichshafen/Germany will create „Flugvergnügen“ in „the ultimate flying machine“ for all those who are lucky enough to get a ticket for one of the airship’s Bay Area trips.

A wonderful study in fractals, eddies and sediment. The green color is from the mineral content of the water in the old salt pond. The picture doesn't capture what could be seen with the naked eye. This is a great example of the unexpected things you see from the airship.

An oil painting in the office of NASA Ames Center Director, Pete Worden, shows him with a staff and some goats by Hangar One. There's a long story attached to the picture, but the goats are real! Here's the NASA goat 'mooring' and close up of the beasty shadows in the afternoon sun, taken from the airship on Thursday.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

We're now finally getting to go through all the photos that have been taken recently. Michael from Zeppelin took this picture of The Halls as we crossed the Golden Gate bridge on the way in on October 25th. Brian had been on the road for a couple of weeks and this was another 5am morning for all of us, so we were both tired but definitely happy when this picture was taken.

Treasure Island housed a blimp base in the 1940's. There's lots of discussion going on about the redevelopment plans. We think they need a Zeppelin mooring there. There's already a wonderful 'terminal' for us to use. We flew over to scope it out. Definitely has potential!

We were going to post these shots chronologically, but didn't want you to miss them. So the next few posts will be some select vistas I took while on the October 25th transfer flight. People currently flying on the airship are also getting to see views like these!

Seeing the Zeppelin in the SF Bay sky this afternoon. Watching the folks in the cars in front of me pointing and talking. Knowing that there were real live people on board having a really wonderful time, and seeing amazing views.

Saturday, November 1, 2008

We've had a few messages from people wanting to know what the latest is. As you can all imagine, this first week has been more than a little busy with both the airship now here and all the team together. We also have been finishing the renovations to our new HQ and having office furniture installed so that we can all move into new spaces. And the team has been out inspecting and setting up the remote operations sites. To add to the mix, our first few days of operations had to be rescheduled due to the first major rains and winds of the season! Many of us have been working for weeks straight without decent breaks, and some time out has been necessary. We do have a large number of photos and stories about everything from the first entry into the Hangar through to the new offices and we'll get them up just as soon as we possibly can. Thanks for bearing with us as we get things launched!

Airship Ventures on the Web

Fly With Us - How to Buy Tickets to Fly on the Airship

Our airship, “Eureka”, is the only commercial passenger airship operating in the United States!

You can learn more about the various tours and charter options available, as well as our schedule, at our main site.

Your Pictures of the Zeppelin

Have you seen the airship? Send us your sighting here, and view the whole collection on our sightings blog.

“Luftschiff Hoch”, or Up Ship!

In the Golden Age of Airships, Zeppelins were launched with the command “luftschiff hoch!”, meaning “airship up!”

Welcome to our ongoing collection of airship musings. If you start from the first post, you can follow the story starting from how we got our own luftschiff off the ground, right thru our current adventures.